otly, the others giving chase and halloaing in the
background.

Dyke after dyke we flew headlong in the grey-white mist--the space still
even betwixt us--then, at a sudden high dry-stone wall, which loomed up
as a wave of darkness seaward, my horse jumped short, and down we fell
together, on the turf beyond.

As I lay there for a moment or two, I was certain I heard a heavy
rumbling of rock or stone by the cliff edge hard by, followed by a deep
plunge far below into the sea.

I rose to my feet and looked around me. There was no sign of horse or
rider; both had disappeared.

The cliff here made a sudden bend inland, so that I could even catch the
come and go of the waves in the far void below, and I felt 'twas lucky
for me that I had been riding the nethermost line of the twain of us.

Cautiously approaching the edge, I noticed it had been just broken away
under the tramplings of a horse, and as I peeped over I caught sight of
an indistinct figure lying on a broad slab of rock below that jutted out
some way from the cliff.

Feeling carefully around for support of root or stone, I made my way
down, and discovered, as I had already conjectured, 'twas the reiver
that lay there.

He was lying motionless, spread on his back, and was murmuring to
himself as I drew close.

I knelt beside him to lift him up, and could catch, as I tried to raise
him, what he was saying.

'Whisht ye, then, whisht, Effie, Aah never meant to break t' dish, Aah
tell thee. Leave us aloan, then, lass, doan't plague t' life oot of a
man. Ay, Aah'll fetch t' coo in i' guid time, there's no call t' bang
us that gait.'

Then he babbled indistinctly; his lips grew whiter and ceased from
moving; and when the others had come up I think he was already dead.

As I rode off for the physician in Redcar, I minded me I had once read
in a book, Reverend Sir, that this same Cleveland was once 'the
Cliff-land of the Danes,' and that the older name of Roseberry
Topping--the famous hill of these parts--was Othenesberg, or Odin's
Hill, together with much else of an antiquarian interest and varied
conjecture, which I must even leave to wiser heads than mine to
determine the true issues of, as well as their bearing upon the events
just narrated, but this I may say, that here is the same 'crazy tale' my
cousin mentioned to you, set down in all true verisimilitude by,
reverend sir, your very faithful and humble servant to command,

FREDDY HALL.

T